The new era of team bonding in the NHL

The Philadelphia Flyers have embarked on a sailboat regatta off the Florida coast in the past and the Pittsburgh Penguins held a scavenger hunt through the streets of Stockholm in 2008.

The Chicago Blackhawks attended a taping of The Tonight Show in New York last season while earlier this month the Detroit Red Wings went curling in Edmonton. But the granddaddy of all team bonding excursions has to be the Washington Capitals field trip to the FBI’s Training Academy in Quantico, Va., in late November.

Name one NHLer who doesn’t want to blow stuff up.

“It’s definitely the coolest thing I’ve done in a team setting,” said Capitals defenceman Karl Alzner. “I don’t think any of us had ever shot a semi-automatic weapon or had a chance to explode bombs, so for all of us to be on the same playing field for an afternoon was huge, especially the younger guys. Any time you can interact with the guys away from the rink is invaluable and goes a long way to building that chemistry that teams who win championships have.”

Like the New York Islanders. Not the present day Isles of course, but the dynasty that won four straight Stanley Cups from 1980-83. Although team bonding today compared with 25 years ago is about as different as chalk and chicken liver pate. Back then unity wasn’t so much manufactured as it was manifested.

“The way the game was played then allowed us to be closer,” said Flames head coach Brent Sutter, who won a pair of Cups with the Islanders in the early ’80s. “It wasn’t just the time you spent off the ice, but all the battling on it. It was a different game. You never had scrums back then — if you did, it was five-on-five, everyone dropped the gloves. Now you get scrums and no one drops their gloves.”

And there’s more. You could see it in Sutter’s eyes and by the sly grin spreading across his face. He even went as far as to say as much, before shifting his gaze toward the digital recorders in front of him.

“Team bonding is way different now,” he continued. “I can’t tell you everything on tape, but we’d come back from a road game and we’d all stop at a local pub for two beers on the way home. It was just automatic. I’m not saying that was right, but that was the way the game was.”

It’s the way the world was.

There were no iPhones and digital cameras. No 24-hour sports channels and TMZ. NHLers weren’t so much celebrities as they were just hockey players.

For better or worse, no longer can that intangible bond between teammates be strengthened by a drunken night out on the town.

Today NHL clubs resort to more new-age tactics.

Montreal Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin and Toronto Maple Leafs bench boss Ron Wilson had their teams attend separate retreats in Ontario’s cottage country a couple of years ago. There, under the guidance of professionals in the psychology and nutrition fields, players participated in self-awareness and team-support activities.

Then there’s the more disciplined approach. Ken Hitchcock and Pat Quinn have been known to taken their respective teams to military sites, like the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where players hiked through forests, rappelled down zip lines and negotiated army-regulated obstacle courses. Probably while being yelled at the whole while.

Bet the four of them would be fun to go out with for an evening.

“I don’t think a lot of guys are big fans of the organized team-building, shut your eyes and fall backwards and trust someone to catch you kind of stuff,” said Flames veteran Craig Conroy, whose team opted for a game of paintball in Phoenix earlier this season. “To me, whenever we’ve done that type of thing, it’s never translated. Now when we’ve done fun stuff that the guys wanted to do, like paintball, golf or going to Banff (Alta.) for a few days . … I feel the guys get more out of it because it really is a team thing.”

Albeit, those types of activities also have their dangers. St. Louis Blues defenceman Erik Johnson once tore two ligaments in his knee and was lost for a season after getting his right foot caught between the brake and accelerator pedal of a golf cart while on a team outing.

“You have to be smart about it, but any time you can hang out with the guys away from the rink is a good thing,” said Dallas Stars defenceman Mark Fistric. “For me it goes back to junior. Don Hay always made sure everyone was involved, we were doing stuff together and no one was left out. Last year, I was called up just before we played paintball in Calgary and it really helped make me feel more comfortable in the room and gave me a chance to see my teammates in a light I might not have otherwise.”

There you have it, there’s nothing new about team bonding. Just the way teams go about it.